Patch 5.4 is a week away, so today we're taking a look at things you can do to prepare for the patch--from saving your Valor Points to finishing up Battlefield Barrens! Next week we will publish our Patch 5.4 guide to all the new content, but for now we're just focusing on the changes that can impact how you play the week before.

Olivia from Talk Azeroth covers everything you can do to prepare this week in her most recent show as well:

Existing Gear Changes

In Patch 5.4, all reputation gear tied to MoP factions (except for Shado-Pan Assault) will cost Justice Points instead of Valor Points and the reputation requirements will be lifted--so if you hate grinding reps and are short on VP, just wait a week to buy those items.

Shado-Pan Assault gear will still cost Valor Points in 5.4, but heavily discounted, so it's probably best to wait and buy those items when the patch hits. Shoulders are unaffected, as they cost gold.

Item upgrades aren't going away in 5.4--if you're not sure what to do this week, upgrade your best pieces with Valor this week, and buy the cheaper Shado-Pan Assault upgrades next week.

Patch 5.4 also introduces ilvl 496 BoA gear on the Timeless Isle. While you can't usually control what slot and armor type you'll get a token for, this gear is of a higher item level than the epics which formerly required reputation. Unlike past random-stat items, these epics come with chest, leg, and helm sockets. So hold off on buying some BoEs this week to boost your alt's item level, and send them some Timeless tokens next week.

Once raiding Siege of Orgrimmar you will get ilvl 528 from LFR, 540 Flex, 553 Normal, 559 Warforged, 566 Heroic, and 572 Heroic Warforged. Blizzard posted a blog on 9/4 covering Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Schedules, and you need ilvl 496 to queue up for LFR Siege of Orgrimmar. Flex Wing 1 will be available on September 10th, but LFR Wing 1 will be available on September 17th.

It won't be as easy in 5.4 to convert Justice Points into and quickly get a fresh set of epics, since the conversion has been increased from 375 > 250 to 500 > 250. However, as listed above, there are easy ways to now get PvE epics with Justice Points.

The weekly quests for Battlefield Barrens, as well as most special vanity items, are being removed in 5.4. You will not be able to get Latent Kor'kron transmog armor or any Darkspear Rebellion vanity gear after the patch, or complete Hordebreaker/Darkspear Revolutionary and get the resulting title.

Season 13 Elite PvP gear and the Tyrannical Gladiator's Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator's Greatcloak are going away. Season 13 Elite gear is particularly unique because it required players to earn a ton of but didn't have a rating requirement. Season 14 Elite gear will be handled differently--in addition to earning a ton of points, you also need a high rating.

Wowhead Tools

To help plan Patch 5.4, Wowhead tools can help!

Our PTR database has all the new Patch 5.4 gear, and our Siege of Orgrimmar boss pages have loot broken down by LFR, Flex, Normal, Heroic difficulties as well as by Loot Specialization.

Our items pages and item comparison tool now have Challenge Mode scaling options, so you can roughly see what your gear becomes inside a Challenge Mode or 5.4 Proving Ground.

Our Profiler can now be used on our PTR site to make Equipment Sets and item lists of 5.4 gear sets.

Our Battle Pet Team Calculator lets you save your ideal pet teams for the Celestial Tournament and power leveling. When 5.4 hits, you can also compare your teams to the Celestial Tournament teams as well.

Comments

Comment by Nulgar

on 2013-09-03T12:26:38-05:00

Shado-Pan Assault VP gear is also changed to required Friendly reputation at most, compare Roofstalker Shadowwrap live and Roofstalker Shadowwrap PTR - this does not include the Shoulders at Exalted, which cost Gold anyway.

Comment by WizzardlordUK

on 2013-09-03T12:26:45-05:00

I wonder what the shado-pan assualt discount is going to be it refers to a heavily dicount so hoping its at least 50%.

Comment by perculia

on 2013-09-03T12:28:02-05:00

Yep, that's covered in the linked currency preview, this was just more of a general overview. If you're debating buying the gear this week, you already have the rep--it's more of a "hold off and save VP" message I wanted to get across.

The Shado-Pan shoulders do not cost Valor Points, so they are unaffected. Added a note about that.

My earlier currency blog covers all the detailed price changes--it's linked under the Currency section here, I just wanted to keep things relatively short instead of tldr.

Comment by Nulgar

on 2013-09-03T12:28:31-05:00

I wonder what the shado-pan assualt discount is going to be it refers to a heavily dicount so hoping its at least 50%.

The chest I linked above goes from 2250 to 1485, which is a 33% discount.

Comment by CalaelenDT

on 2013-09-03T12:40:43-05:00

Any news on whether or not the Battlefield Barrens titles will become account-wide once it becomes a FoS, or if it'll stay character specific (which would be stupid seeing as how all titles save PvP ones are account bound).

What's the deal with being able to use Mogu Runes to get battle pets in ToT LFR? I thought they have always been able to be a drop through a bonus roll? Was this not the case, or are they now a guaranteed drop on a bonus roll come 5.4?

Comment by Nogago

on 2013-09-03T12:53:40-05:00

I just don't understand blizzard. Why they change the whole vale? Why don't they just phase it? Future newcomers will not have a chanche to see the original vale...

Comment by FranklinNoble

on 2013-09-03T13:50:36-05:00

Is there a guide to finding all the vendors for this gear, or is it consolidated someplace?

Comment by Azrile

on 2013-09-03T14:04:20-05:00

I just don't understand blizzard. Why they change the whole vale? Why don't they just phase it? Future newcomers will not have a chanche to see the original vale...

That is already the case on live right now. If you do the quest at 87 to open the gate to the vale, as soon as you open the gate there is already the big horde hole in the ground from the 5.3 patch... the vale is essentially ´ruined´ as soon as it opens.

Honestly, I understand your point.. but from a gameplay perspective.. very few players are going to be using the vale once the next expansion hits. Would anyonce care if Twilight Highlaands had been changed when 4.4 launched? There are always some ´derp´ lore moments when leveling, you just have to understand the limitations and amount of dev work required to make a modest fix to lore.

Comment by Azrile

on 2013-09-03T14:07:05-05:00

Is there a guide to finding all the vendors for this gear, or is it consolidated someplace?

I think all the vendors are at the same place. The rest of the new stuff is all drops. There is one ( I believe) centrally located vendor on the timeless island who sells the new 496 tokens for timeless coins, but you can get the same tokens from drops from mobs.

Comment by Ramdasbir

on 2013-09-03T14:22:20-05:00

Any news on Spirit of Harmony being unbound?

Comment by Traynwreck

on 2013-09-03T16:20:27-05:00

You should mention that "according to the patch notes, all item enhancements from Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and various vendors and quests will be able to be applied to any piece of gear, regardless of item level."* So if you happen to be thinking of enchanting a BoA this week with a low level Vanilla enchant, wait and drop something way fancier on there. ^_^

Comment by Rainemard

Has there been any news on whether there will be any delayed release for SoO wings for LFR (and maybe Flex) like what they did with ToT?

Comment by Ellipse

on 2013-09-03T17:40:15-05:00

What about Tyrannical Primal Diamond, will that be removed in 5.4? If I purchase it now, will I be able to use it in a s14 head? Note I don't have legendary gems, so don't say what's better than it :P

Comment by Voltan

on 2013-09-03T17:46:18-05:00

Anyone know if Yorik Sharpeye will still be around?

Comment by Tuarceata

on 2013-09-03T17:57:38-05:00

What's the deal with being able to use Mogu Runes to get battle pets in ToT LFR? I thought they have always been able to be a drop through a bonus roll? Was this not the case, or are they now a guaranteed drop on a bonus roll come 5.4?

Not guaranteed. Since the only way to get them is from LFR Prim, you might want to double your chances while you're still running ToT3.

Any news on Spirit of Harmony being unbound?

Blues said no a while back :l

Comment by Azrile

on 2013-09-03T18:44:49-05:00

Has there been any news on whether there will be any delayed release for SoO wings for LFR (and maybe Flex) like what they did with ToT?

Flex is being released in wings. The first week they will release the first wingLFR is being released in wings. The second week the first wing will be released.

As far as I know, there has been no indication how long the delay is for the 2nd wings to be released.

Comment by Azrile

on 2013-09-03T18:47:35-05:00

What's the deal with being able to use Mogu Runes to get battle pets in ToT LFR? I thought they have always been able to be a drop through a bonus roll? Was this not the case, or are they now a guaranteed drop on a bonus roll come 5.4?

Right now on live, you cannot get the pets with the bonus roll.

Comment by perculia

on 2013-09-03T19:41:20-05:00

Nethaera is planning on releasing a blog post tomorrow with the 5.4 raid scheduling details. I'll have a link to it when it's up.

Also yes, currently on live bonus rolls don't go towards ToT pets. In 5.4, bonus rolls can go towards pets in both ToT and SoO.

This is just one of many guides, we have more guides coming about the Timeless Isle gear, the Siege of Orgrimmar gear, etc. If you're curious where you can buy the new JP gear, you should still be able to get them from the currency vendors by the Siege of Niuzao.

Comment by themightysven

on 2013-09-03T20:20:45-05:00

Things I have not seen covered anywhere:1. What is the iLevel requirement for SoO LFR?2. How does the Cho questline that started in 5.3 change? (will it skip Battlefield Barrens and go straight to climbing the mountain?)3. Are there new crafted PvP Blues, or will the old patterns grow up?